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Hume's Political Science and the Classical Republican Tradition*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2009

James Moore
James Moore
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Concordia University
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Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , December 1977 , pp. 809 - 840
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Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 1977

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References

1 “My Own Life,” in Mossner, E. C., The Life of David Hume (Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1954), 611.Google Scholar

2 Letter to Clephane, John, January 1953, in Grieg, J. Y. T. (ed.), The Letters of David Hume (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1932), vol. 1, 170.Google Scholar

3 Hume, David, “That Politics May Be Reduced to a Science,” in Philosophical Works, ed. by Green, T. H. and Grose, T. H. (London: Longmans, Green, 1875), vol. 3, 108Google Scholar; hereinafter referred to as Works.

4 Robbins, Caroline, The English Commonwealthman (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1959).Google Scholar

5 Pocock, J. G. A., “Machiavelli, Harrington and English Political Ideologies in the Eighteenth Century,” in Politics, Language and Time (New York: Atheneum, 1971), 104–47.Google Scholar

6 Raab, Felix, The English Face of Machiavelli (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1964)Google Scholar, and Pocock, J. G. A., The Machiavellian Moment (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975).Google Scholar

7 Fink, Zera, The Classical Republicans (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1945).Google Scholar It will be clear from the sequel that my understanding of the classical tradition, derived in part from my reading of the authors cited above, differs in certain respects from what Forbes, Duncan has called “vulgar Whiggism” in his recent and valuable book, Hume's Philosophical Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1975).Google Scholar The reader may also profitably consult earlier books on Hume's political thought by Stewart, John B., The Moral and Political Philosophy of David Hume (New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1963)Google Scholar; Giarrizzo, Giusseppe, Hume politico e storico (Torino: Giulio Einaudi, 1962)Google Scholar; and Vlachos, Georges, Essai sur la politique de Hume (Paris: Domat Montchretien, 1955).Google Scholar

8 Hume, , An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, ed. by Selby-Bigge, L. A. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1902), Sect. III, Part III, 165Google Scholar; hereinafter referred to as E.C.H.U.

9 “Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences,” in Works, vol. 3, 175–76.

10 “Of Civil Liberty,” Works, vol. 3, 157.

11 Hume, , A Treatise of Human Nature, ed. by Selby-Bigge, L. A. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1888)Google Scholar, Book I, Part III. Sect. IV, hereinafter referred to as Treatise.

12 Ibid., 173.

13 Newton, Sir I., Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1946). 270.Google Scholar

14 Duncan Forbes offers some pertinent criticisms of the manner in which Hume's assumption of the uniformity of human nature has been misunderstood by some of his critics. See Hume's Philosophical Politics, chap. 4.

15 Treatise, Book I, Part III. Sect. IV. 174, particularly rule no. 6.

16 E.C.H.U., Sect. VIII, Part I, 83–84.

17 The Works of Lord Bolingbroke (Philadelphia, 1841), vol. 3, 87.

18 “Letters on the Study and Use of History,” ibid., vol. 2, 193.

19 “Essays on the Nature, Extent and Reality of Human Knowledge,” ibid., vol. 3, 97.

20 James, D. G., The Life of Reason: Hobbes, Locke and Bolingbroke (London: Longmans, Green. 1949). 247, 211–12, 218.Google Scholar

21 “Letters on the Study and Use of History,” in The Works of Lord Bolingbroke, vol. 2, 211.

22 Harrington, James, Oceana and Other Works, ed. by John Toland, (Dublin, 1737), 183.Google Scholar

23 “Divers Models of Popular Government,” in ibid., 524–37.

24 “Valerius and Publicola,” in ibid., 494. See also Greenleaf, W. H., Order, Empiricism and Politics (London: Oxford University Press, 1964), chap. 10Google Scholar, who acknowledges that, in Harrington's work, “the empirical method was rarely, if ever, employed in the most stringent fashion… the notion of what constitutes an empirical fact involved acceptance of matter we would reject…” (247). It may be a more satisfactory characterization of Harrington's scientific method to call him an “inductive materialist,” notwithstanding the problems any attempt to fix his assumptions precisely must present. Certainly there was nothing mechanical in his idea of nature (“Prerogative of Popular Government,” in Oceana, 265), and he explicitly disavowed any intention to “meddle with the mathematicians, an art I understand as little as mathematicians do this” (ibid., 243). Toland's inclusion, in his edition of Harrington's works, of the murky and fragmentary thoughts written during his later illness (“The Mechanics of Nature,” in Oceana, xlii-xliv), makes no contribution to a clarification of the problem. The fragments in any case are misnamed: insofar as any coherent idea of nature appears in the fragments it is an idea of a plastic nature: “a spirit, the same spirit of God which in the beginning moved upon the waters, his plastic virtue, etc.” On the other hand, an interpretation of the nature of things as material, allows one to interpret the nature of government as the material of government, and this seems to be most consistent with the centrality accorded the balance of property as the matter of government in his writings.

25 See the organization of topics in “A System of Politics,” in Oceana, 496–514. The efficient cause of government is described by Harrington under the heading of administration or reason of state (512–14); the final cause of government is the preservation of the life of the commonwealth or its immortality. See also “The Prerogative of Popular Government,” in Oceana, 266.

26 “Valerius and Publicola,” in Oceana, 494: “Publicola: … The materials of a government are as much in nature and as little in art, as the materials of a house…. Now so far as art is necessarily disposed by the nature of its foundation or materials, so far it is in art as in nature. “Valerius: What call you the foundation or the materials of government? “Publicola: That which I have long since proved and you granted, the balance, the distribution of property and the power thence naturally deriving.”

27 “Of the First Principles of Government,” in Works, vol. 3, 112.

28 Machiavelli, , The Prince (New York: Mentor Books. 1952). 84.Google Scholar

29 Machiavelli, , The Discourses, trans. and ed. by Walker, L. J. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 1950). vol. 1, 216.Google Scholar

30 Olschki, Leonardo, Machiavelli: The Scientist (Berkeley: The Gillick Press, 1945). 29ff.Google Scholar, and L. J. Walker. “Introduction.” in The Discourses, Sects. VI. VIII. IX. See Parel, Anthony, “Machiavelli's Method and His Interpreters.” in Anthony Parel, (ed.), The Political Calculus (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972).Google Scholar

31 Wolin, Sheldon, Politics and Vision (London: Allen and Unwin, 1961). 209ff.Google Scholar

32 “Of Civil Liberty.” in Works, vol. 3, 156.

33 Pope, Alexander, An Essay on Man, ed. by Maynard Mack, (London: Methuen, 1950), 123–24.Google Scholar

34 “That Politics May Be Reduced to a Science,” in Works, vol. 3, 98–99.

35 The Works of Lord Bolingbroke, vol. 2. 120.

36 “That Politics May Be Reduced to a Science,” in Works, vol. 3, 99–100.

37 Zera Fink, The Classical Republicans, chap. 2, and J. G. A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment, chap. 8.

38 “Of the Authenticity of Ossian's Poems,” in Works, vol. 4. 416.

39 Letter to Montesquieu, , April 1749. in Letters, vol. 1, 134.Google Scholar

40 “Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth.” in Works, vol. 3. 491. and Weston, C. C., English Constitutional Theory and the House of Lords, 1556–1832 (London: Rout-ledge and Kegan Paul. 1965). 177, 174–75.Google Scholar

41 Zera Fink, The Classical Republicans, 171, 153. and passim.

42 “That Politics May Be Reduced to a Science,” in Works, vol. 3, 101.

43 “A Dissertation Upon Parties,” in The Works of Lord Bolingbroke, vol. 2, Letters X-XIII.

44 “Of the Independence of Parliament,” in Works, vol. 3, 117–18.

45 Felix Raab, The English Face of Machiavelli, 157–68 and 233ff.

46 Gunn, J. A. W., Politics and the Public Interest in England in the Seventeenth Century (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 1969), 38Google Scholar, and “Interest Will Not Lie: A Seventeenth Century Political Maxim,” Journal of the History of Ideas 29 (1968), 551–64.

47 Due de la Rochefoucauld, , Maxime No. 171. in Oeuvres Complètes (Paris: Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 1957), 429.Google Scholar

48 Mandeville, Bernard de, Free Thoughts on Religion, the Church and National Happiness (3rd ed.; London, 1731), 332.Google Scholar The first edition was published in 1720.

49 Treatise, Book III, Part II, Sect. II, 491–92.

50 “Of the Independence of Parliament,” in Works, vol. 3, 119.

51 “That Politics May Be Reduced to a Science.” in Works, vol. 3. 99, 107.

52 Ibid., 108.

53 Holdsworth, Sir William, A History of English Law (London: Methuen, 1938), vol. 10, 412.Google Scholar

54 “Of the Independence of Parliament,” in Works, vol. 3, 120–21.

55 The London Journal, No. 797, October 5, 1734; No. 744, September 29, 1733; No. 765, February 23, 1734; No. 768, March 16, 1734, No. 796, September 28, 1734; No. 797, October 4, 1734. See Hanson, Lawrence, Government and the Press, 1695–1763 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1936), 112Google Scholar, and Kramick, Isaac, Bolingbroke and His Circle (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968), chap. 5Google Scholar, where it is suggested that Hume's position “came straight from the justification of corruption found in Walpole's press” (124).

56 The Country Journal: or the Craftsman, No. 797, October 10, 1741, where the essay “Whether the British Government Inclines More to an Absolute Monarchy or to a Republic” appears as a letter to the nominal editor, D'anvers, Caleb. The essay was then reprinted in The Gentleman's Magazine 11 (1741), 536–38.Google Scholar

57 “Whether the British Government Inclines More to an Absolute Monarchy or to a Republic,” in Works, vol. 3. 126.

58 See Butterfield, Herbert, George III, Lord North and the People (London: Macmillan. 1950), 316.Google Scholar

59 Kemp, Betty, King and Commons, 1660–1832 (London: Macmillan, 1959). Appendix F, 156–57, 89, 114.Google Scholar

60 Machiavelli, The Discourses, vol. 1. 234.

61 Harrington, Oceana, 78. See also Arendt, Hannah, On Revolution (London: Faber and Faber, 1963), 209–10.Google Scholar

62 “Of Parties in General”, in Works, vol. 3, 185.

63 “Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences,” in Works, vol. 3, 185.

64 de Mandeville, Bernard, The Fable of the Bees, ed. by Kaye, F. B. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924), vol. 2, 321–22.Google Scholar

65 Millar, John, “The Origin of the Distinction of Ranks,” reprinted in Lehmann, William C., John Millar of Glasgow, 1735–1801 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960), 177–78Google Scholar, and Ferguson, Adam, An Essay on the History of Civil Society, ed. by Forbes, Duncan (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1966), 122–24Google Scholar, and Forbes's introduction, xxiv.

66 Meek, Ronald L., “The Scottish Contribution to Marxist Sociology,” in Meek, (ed.), Economics, Ideology and Other Essays (London: Chapman and Hall, 1967)Google Scholar, and Social Science and the Ignoble Savage (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976). See also Skinner, Andrew, “Economics and History—The Scottish Enlightenment,” Scottish Journal of Political Economy 12 (1965), 10–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

67 E.C.H.U., Sect. VIII. Part 1,90: “How could politics be a science if laws and forms of government had not a uniform influence upon society?” See also Forbes, Hume's Philosophical Politics, chap. 7. For a different interpretation of the relation between government and economic society in Hume's thought, see Stewart, The Moral and Political Philosophy of David Hume, 161ff. I have attempted to explore Hume's, differences with his Scottish contemporaries more fully in “Hume's Theory of Justice and Property,” Political Studies 24 (1976), 103–19.Google Scholar It should be added, however, that current reappraisals of the political thought of Adam Ferguson (by David Kettler) and of Adam Smith (by Donald Winch) suggest that political considerations may have been of first importance for these thinkers, as well as for Hume. See the contributions of Kettler and Winch to “The Year 1776 in the History of Political Thought,” in J. G. A. Pocock (ed.), Proceedings of the Conference for the Study of Political Thought, 1976.

68 “Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences,” in Works, vol. 3, 179.

69 The History of England from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution of 1688 (London, 1792), vol. 3, 299ff.

70 “Of Civil Liberty,” in Works, vol. 3, 159.

71 “Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences,” in Works, vol. 3, 187.

72 The History of England, vol. 6, 191–92.

73 “Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences,” in Works, vol. 3, 188–90.

74 “Of Eloquence,” in Works, vol. 3, 294.

75 Letter to the Earl of Hertford, , February 1776, in Letters, vol. 2, 18–23.Google Scholar

76 Letter to Mrs. Dysart of Eccles, April 1751, in ibid., vol. 1, 158–59.

77 “Of Civil Liberty,” in Works, vol. 3, 294.

78 “Of Refinement in the Arts” (entitled “Of Luxury” in early editions of the Political Discourses, 1752–1758), in Works, vol. 3, 301.

79 “Of Commerce,” in Works, vol. 3, 294.

80 “Of Money,” in Works, vol. 3, 310.

81 Home, John, “Appendix to the Account of the Life of Mr. John Home,” in Works, ed. by Mackenzie, Henry (Edinburgh, 1822), vol. 1, 181–82.Google Scholar

82 “That Politics May Be Reduced to a Science,” in Works, vol. 3, 103.

83 Letter to Strahan, William, October 1775, in Letters, vol. 2, 301.Google Scholar

84 Ibid.

85 Giuseppe Giarrizzo, David Hume politico e storico, 90.

86 Ibid., 94ff.

87 Letter to Turgot, , June 1768, in Letters, vol. 2, 180.Google Scholar

88 “Of the Balance of Power,” in Works, vol. 3, 354.

89 “Of Public Credit,” in Works, vol. 3, 368.

90 “Of the Balance of Power,” in Works, vol. 3, 354.

91 “Of the Populousness of Ancient Nations,” in Works, vol. 3, 408.

92 Ibid., 403.

93 “Of Some Remarkable Customs,” in Works, vol. 3, 374–77.

94 Ibid., 378.

95 See Jones, J. W., Law and Legal Theory of the Greeks (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956), 110–11.Google ScholarVinogradoff, Paul, Outlines of Historical Jurisprudence (London: Humphrey Milford, 1922), 138Google Scholar, notes that the case of Aeschines vs. Ktespiphon (Hume's main example of the graphe paranomon) was an instance of “the worst side of the practice, its use as a political weapon for personal motives.”

96 See Scullard, H. H., Roman Politics, 220–150 B.C. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1951).Google Scholar and Syme, Sir Ronald, The Roman Revolution (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1939).Google Scholar

97 “Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth,” in Works, vol. 3, 481.

98 “Of Public Credit,” in Works, vol. 3, 371. In response to a proposal (of Archibald Hutchinson) that the debt might be discharged all at once, if every citizen would contribute a sum proportionate to his wealth. Hume remarked: “He seems not to have considered that property in money and stock in trade might easily be concealed or disguised; and that visible property in lands and houses would really at last answer for the whole: An inequality and oppression which would never be submitted to.”

99 “Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth,” in Works, vol. 3, 481–82. The experience which suggested this line of reasoning to Hume was the experience of the Lords of the Articles in the Scottish Parliament. See Home's, Henry description of this institution in Essays Upon Several Subjects Concerning British Antiquities (Edinburgh, 1747), 49–50.Google Scholar

100 The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York: Columbia University Press, 1961), vol. 3, 103. and Stourzh, Gerald, Alexander Hamilton and the Idea of Republican Government (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1970), 70.Google Scholar

101 In The Federalist Papers, ed. by Rossiter, Clinton (New York: Mentor Books, 1961), no. 9, 73.Google Scholar

102 Ibid.

103 “Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth,” in Works, vol. 3, 487.

104 Adair, Douglass, “That Politics May Be Reduced to a Science: David Hume, James Madison and the Tenth Federalist,” Huntingdon Library Quarterly 20 (1957), 343–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

105 The Federalist Papers, no. 68, 412.

106 Ibid., no. 51, 322.

107 “Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth,” in Works, vol. 3, 483, 485.

108 The Federalist Papers, no. 65, 396.

109 Ibid., no. 78, 466.

110 “Of the Origin of Government,” in Works, vol. 3, 113–14. This essay was added to the last edition of Hume's essays, published in 1777.

111 “Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences,” in Works, vol. 3, 185, quoted by Hamilton in The Federalist Papers, no. 85, 526–27.

112 Letter from Jefferson, Thomas to Spafford, H. G., March 17, 1814, in Thomas Jefferson on Democracy, selected by Padover, Saul K. (New York: Mentor Books, 1946), 85.Google Scholar

113 Coulborn, H. R. Trevor, The Lamp of Experience (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1965), 179.Google Scholar

114 “Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals,” in Works, vol. 4, 190, n. 1.